All posts tagged #Montevideo

As the summer winds down, the action in Uruguay will once again turn its focus towards Montevideo. The season kicks off with a premiere event, Bartending Art, a cycle that will bring together the masters of cocktails from throughout Latin America in the mythical, and recently remodeled, Jockey Club. Together with the cocktail experts, each night of the cycle will feature various plastic, musical, and visual arts to add a nice cultural touch to the evening.

Open for just a few weeks, the new restaurant at the Jockey Club promises to be an obligatory culinary stop on 18 de Julio, the main avenue in Montevideo. The building where the restaurant is housed dates back to 1920, designed by the Frenchman José Carré, and is a marvel that was abandoned for years. Taken over by the Grupo Pestana, there will soon be a hotel, but for now trying out the restaurant remains a great temptation. Marco Bonino is the chef in charge who has had an eclectic career in Spanish kitchens, luxury yachts, and coastal restaurants in Uruguay. He refers to the menu as “market style” putting emphasis on fresh ingredients and classic dishes–what you read is what you get. They offer executive menus and daring menu options. There is also a great cocktail bar that hopes to create a profile all its own.

It’s said that the fried tortas arrived to the Rio de la Plata with the Spaniards. The tradition is to eat them in the winter (no one will want to eat a piece of dough fried in beef fat when it’s 40 degrees out!) and on rainy days. Why? Because the story goes that in colonial times women would get together on rainy days and make the masa.

During the 90s the torta frita was the street food of choice in Montevideo. The whole city smelled of fried foods, until the local government regulated the process, and the majority of vendors, who simply set up shop with a table to make the dough, a can of gas and a huge pot of oil, disappeared. Nevertheless, in recent years the torta frita has started coming back in numbers in various neighborhoods, near schools and public meeting places, for something to snack on.

It was during the 80’s when an entrepreneur got the idea to open the first food truck in Montevideo. The success that soon turned into El Galleguito, as it was called, was a hit. Competition didn’t take long to appear and Montevideo learned came to have 300 different trucks that are situated at strategic points, offering food to whomever wants to eat on the cheap, with a lot of flavor and a lot of calories. Nowadays, the chorizo carts are regulated by the city and they can only sell butterflied chorizos (i.e. cut down the center), panchos (big hot dogs), and hamburgers, without french fries, eggs, tomatoes or lettuce.

It’s been one hell of a year for Buenos Aires’ El Baqueano. Back in September they received the highest climber award and landed at #18 on the list of Latin America’s 50 Best restaurants. Fer Rivarola and his wife Gabriela have made countless appearances at festivals this year including Tambo, Latitud Cero, and Ñam. Amidst all that, they’ve also taken their cooking series, Cocina Sin Fronteras, on the road, truly embodying the idea of cuisine having no borders, to places like Chile, Venezuela, and Uruguay.

In this new video from photographer Pablo Baracat for his The Great Cuisine series, get an inside look of the first Cocina Sin Fronteras on the road in Montevideo, Uruguay at Café Misterio. Rivarola and crew teamed up with Matías Perdomo of Italy’s Al Pont de Ferr, who happens to be a Uruguayan native, to cook alongside Misterio’s chef Juan Pablo Clerici for one-night only, 12-course dinner full of lots of smoky, foam-filled surprises. If you weren’t able to attend, get a taste of what you missed out on, and why you should be sure and attend the next installment of Cocina Sin Fronteras (which has yet to be confirmed). We’ll be there!

In 1946, Antonio Carbonaro, at his restaurant Mejillón Bar in Punta del Este, created this emblematic Uruguayan dish. A foreign client entered in a hurry, when the kitchen had already closed, and ordered goat’s meat, which isn’t common in Uruguay. In the heat of the moment, Carbonoro took out a sandwich whose key ingredient was thinly sliced beef loin, with warm bread, butter, and ham. The client was not only fascinated, but the plate became a symbol of Uruguay up until today.

So, how do you make a chivito?

In ascending order, you’ll find a sandwich with bread, lettuce, tomato, meat, pancetta, egg, ham, mozzarella, mayonnaise, olives, and another slice of bread. Chivitos are so popular that in Montevideo there are locations specialized in making exclusively chivitos, and the cooks who prepare them are experts. The “chiviteros” basically work with two spatulas that they use to cut, flip, and move the ingredients on a griddle that’s set around 180 degrees.

Pablo, a “chivitero” for the last three years, taught us a few of the keys for a good chivito.

Following in the steps of the culinary boom that the media has been immersing us in for awhile, Uruguayans want to learn to eat, but also how to cook. They want to learn to use different spices, develop a deeper understanding of cooking techniques, and fall back in love with old ingredients while discovering new ones.